30 Day Baseball Card Challenge

Saturday, May 28, 2016

Relaxing with Dime Packs

It's been over forty years since Toppsbaseball wax packs had a suggested retail value of 10¢. In 1975... collectors were forced to pay an extra 5¢ for a pack of ten cards and the trademark stick of pink gum.Fast forward to January of this year. I drove up to Daly City to attend my favorite card show and as soon as I entered the mall, I found a guy with hundreds... possibly thousands... of dime packs. I immediately began scooping up packs that were dime worthy.In celebration of my highly anticipated three day weekend, I have decided to bust open a few stacks of packs.

I kicked things off with Triple Play and was expecting some cheesy design or a product that catered to kids. The result was a very pleasant surprise. I actually like this design more than the regular 1994 Donruss base card set.

I was also fortunate enough to beat the odds and pull this Medalistinsert featuring three popular National League first basemen at the time.Next up...

I opened a ton of 1991 Toppsback in the day and already own every card I could possibly want from this product. But this set has several cards featuring outstanding photography and I was hoping to pull a few. The Sandberg is a prime example.

I decided to take a break from baseball and moved onto the Flintstonespacks. Guess what?

I pulled a baseball card! What are the odds? I watched my fair share of The Flintstones as a kid, but don't remember this particular one. I'll have to see if I can find it online.Next up are a pair of packs featuring the University of Washingtonfootball program. Back in the early 80's, I actively rooted for the Huskies because my cousinKeith went there. He's actually the reason I became a Seahawksfan as well.

Eventually I attended San Jose State, so I started cheering for the Spartans instead. But I still remembered a few of the names I pulled from the pack, including this Pelluer.Okay... let's get back to baseball.The problem with having high expectations is there's a higher risk of being let down... and that's exactly what happened with the 1992 Pinnacle and 1993 Stadium Clubpacks...

Back in the day, I enjoyed building the 1991 and 1992 Pinnaclebaseball card sets. I remember them being really nice cards, but for some reason... I just couldn't get into this product. Maybe one of the reasons is that there weren't any A's or Padres in the pack. It didn't help that Tony Pena was the biggest name... and he's not even in his Piratesuniform. Insert sad face emoji.

Stadium Club was equally unimpressive. The lone bright spot was this interesting insert featuring two Bay Area legends. I took a break from the hobby back in 1993, which probably explains why I've never seen this insert before.I saved the seven 1992 Fleer Ultra packs for last, because this was easily my favorite product of 1992.

Back then, I busted a ton of this product (both series) and ended up building a master set with all of the base cards and inserts. They are still in the same binder from twenty-four years ago. Damn. I feel old. Anyways... the second series mostly featured rookies, but I did manage to pull a few inserts including TheBig Hurt you see above.At the end of the day... I probably didn't pull $2.10worth of cards, but I had a good time busting open packs... so that's got to be worth something. I was also able to add the Medalists and Pacific Terrificinserts to my insert binders. The rest of the stuff will be thrown into Super Traderpackages or handed out to students this summer.I still have a bunch of packs left from my card show purchase, but I'll save them for another day.Happy Saturday and sayonara!

I can't help but think you got $2.10 of fun; at the very least, you got a blog post for $2.10.

1994 Triple Play is one of my favorite sets of the 1990's, and I'm not sure I ever busted a pack (I bought a hand-collated set). Because I never opened any packs, it never occurred to me to look for *inserts*. Something new to look for on COMC!

I also have a hand-collated 1993 Cardz Flintstones set. I think "Little Big League" was a TV special and not part of the syndication package (which is probably why you don't remember it). I hate to think of how many times I saw the original episodes.

I love the way Tony Pena's mask is "floating" over the black Pinnnacle border.

Great post and the Triple Play design was definitely "un-Triple Play" like. Nice post and love seeing some of the old cards. The Triple Play cards were my favorite. I'd take your pulls for $2.10 any day.

DIME PACKS? Only where you live (or where Dime Box Nick lives). I'm posting tomorrow some dollar packs from around the same period that I nabbed at a card show. I thought I was doing pretty good. (*hangs head in shame*)

sport card collectors - when it comes to these dime packs, the value is definitely in the ripping. not really expecting anything big... although how cool would it have been to pull a tony gwynn autograph from those ultra packs?

shlabotnikreport - lol... not sure how i feel about paying $2.10 for a blog post. thanks for the flintstones explanation. it makes sense, since i'm pretty sure i've seen most of the regular flintstones cartoons.

adam sanders - best of luck. the entertainment alone is worth the dime.

hackenbush - glad to see... that you agree with me.

brad parsons - yeah at a dime per pack, it was hard to pass up. hopefully the comc guy is back next month with a larger selection.

bulldog - agree with you on triple play. i'm so used to the hideous red/yellow/orange bordered ones from earlier in the 90s', that it left a sour taste. but the '94 design is pretty solid.

night owl - wish i could compete with nick. his boxes are 10x better than the ones out here in cali

admin - if you're in the bay area, you can have them. just pick them up at the serramonte show next month. if not... these cards wouldn't be worth the postage. you're better off buying a complete set on eBay for $8/dlvd.

About Me

I've been collecting cardboard off and on since the early 80's. I'm presently collecting. But who knows what the future holds in store for me.
One thing is for certain... I'll have my blog to help relive some of my favorite hobby moments.